You can't forget that Korean elections are up this year. This could mean some fiery rhetoric out of South Korea over the Dokdo Islands, at the same time as the China-Japan dispute, placing the US in an even more awkward position than before.

My guess is that those 400 million Indians living in the slums do not consider themselves "free." Most likely they consider themselves slaves or indentured servants to the extremely corrupt Indian elite. (According to the Corruption Perception Index India is even more corrupt than China.)

Did I ever say that China is not corrupt? Or for that matter did you ever claim that China was corrupt? The answer is no to both questions, and you're putting words in people's mouths.

India has been a democracy for 60 years. Why is it still so corrupt? Why is it even more corrupt than authoritarian China? Perhaps India's "democracy" and "democratic system" themselves are corrupt to the core? (People rigging the voting booths and etc.)

BTW which god or gods do you believe in? The ones who let you spirit reincarnate into another being after you die or the one who impregnated the still-virgin Mary?

"The best idea is for USA colonize India so they can have cheaper-than-Chinese-" LOL

Can anyone ever be "cheaper-than-Chinese"?

Can anyone ever be cheaper than Communist Slaves?

No way! Rest of the world has rights. Even the radical and illiterate Middle East.

Communist slaves are the backbone of China's might!

What are you people so proud of?

Btw.. There is no Caste System in India anymore.. but I guess your communist government blocked that news too!
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Who you want to cheat?
In paper, Caste system is gone, but the reality is there. Dalits are returning to Caste for the reservation and government handout.

Only colonize India by America can help Indian out of poverty, out of Caste system. Sure, Indians can beat Chinese cheap labour and be the world factory overnight. See American Indian as an example, either die out of be alcoholic. American will bring you lot of presents---Condoms!!

All this fighting over uninhabited islands. All the nationalist dick waving, tiring. I would join the fray but this is just a masturbatory exercise for the national-racists and no one will be convinced.

Perfect example, no mention of America was included. But you have an axe to grind and can't refrain from your spewing your contempt. A person that just wants to shout his contempt of Americans regardless of the subject post is a waste of my time.

There is nothing better then a good ol' fashioned water gun fight! In college we had a game called assassins. Teams of two, 48hrs to make the kill or you loose and once you get your team your next target is given. Only one team can be victorious!

Absurdities such as "democracies don't fight" or, just to take it further, "US' allies don't fight" are either uttered by those with brain damanage, or as a self-deceiving propaganda.

Clearly Taiwan and Japan clash over Diaoyu; Korea and Japan clash over DokDo; Russia and Japan clash over Kuril Islands.

When it's between mainland China and Japan, US is on Japan's side (by stating US-Japan defence treaty applies so it will protect Japan whatsoever, although US officially "takes no position over the dispute"). How about between Korea-Japan or ROC-Japan or Russia-Japan? US has no moral courage (in case of Korea or ROC) or gut (in case of Russia) to say the same.

Mainland China has no problem to let ROC/Taiwan own Diaoyu Islands. Period. Chiang Kai Shek wanted to give up some islands off the coast of Amoy in early 1950's, due to logistical difficulty in maintaining these islands close to the mainland, and Mao refused to take them in order to have Taiwan to stay closer to the mainland.

Tactically, mainland China should let Taiwan take over the Diaoyu Island by providing all support Taiwan needs. US will be embarrassed to attack Taiwan if Taiwan clashes with Japan. Then it's awithin the Chinese family to sort things out overt the islands.

During 1990's Taiwanese navy had a plan to take over the Diaoyu Islands, only had to abort the plan when its president Lee ordered, as he claimed he was Japanese before the age of 22, had his brother killed while serving the Japanese army during WWII, and speaks Japanese at home and thinks in Japanese then mentally translates his thoughts into Chinese whenever he speaks in public (hence he still speaks broken Chinese). Ma, on the contrary, was an activist during 1970's in a Defend Diaoyu Movement while studying law at Harvard. He was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Taiwan, and was educated in the US, hence had never been "brainwashed" by the Chinese Communists - if some of you wanted to label him as such out of subconcious habit.

"US will be embarrassed to attack Taiwan if Taiwan clashes with Japan."
The US will never attack Taiwan, and it has nothing to do with embarassment. The US will never attack Taiwan, because Taiwan is a friend in the region with relations against PRC. The US would not remove this strategic influence from its regional play book.

You are right, of course it won't. But the US-Japan security treaty bounds US to "defend" Japan in case of conflcit. Same applies to Korea-Japan conflict. These conflicts are real possibilities. US has painted itself to a corner.

US does not think what it got itself into. The world is not as black-and-white and simplistic as US thinks. Today, containing China is US' most important goal in Asia Pacific, South America, Africa and Europe, and even at home. It has lost its real purpose.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, not China. And Japan is no better than 70 years ago, but just sugar coated now as a chip against China. Look at Saddam Hussein, Pinochet, or Osama Bin Laden. These were all US chips or "allies" at one point.

Taiwan is China and both parts of China, namely, mainland and Taiwan, are against Japan in this matter. I know that the US is never embarassed because it is a shameless country and that it can assassinate people right, left and centre and then look you straight in your face to tell you that it did not do it.

Can people please stop using the term "Japs"? It's only takes a few more letters to spell "Japanese". The former is technically a racial slur, just so you know. Quite frankly it shows your colors and does you no favors.

Like "Yanks" or "Merkins". No one ever said "Stop calling Yanks Merrkins". Because its a racial slur but its also funny. Especially since Merrkin means pubic wig. And Yank sounds like wank. "Stop yanking my merrkin" would be perfectly acceptable everywhere except Merrka. And should be encouraged.

There was an old saying : a good Indian ( native-American) is a dead Indian. Over the centuries only the names change. One day, the cockroaches will have a saying : the only good human is a dead human.

I guess I'm not too surprised my first comment was a bit contentious. I have no ability or right to censor others online, and I'm perfectly happy with that- in fact I am in complete favor of it.

But I give no apology for asking for a little bit of civility in debate. That's all.

Of course words are only groupings of phonetic sounds or abstract shapes with no meaning on their own. They get it through their usage in history. "Jap" was a racial slur and "Brit" was not. Picture saying them to a Japanese person or a British person to their face, respectively. It feels different because of the history. (And if you don't feel it, great- but don't be surprised if everyone isn't so blissful).

I think this whole episode so far, that it happened, is a very good thing.

as poster 'Pacific Century' accurately observed: 'Japan’s de facto control of the Diaoyu Islands has been compromised.'

it exposed japan's weakness (having to cling to its master uncle sam so desperately) far more than it weak claim of these islands.

and not only that, it opened to international scrutiny japan's violation of legal ownership of ryukyus people of their homeland. japan has no legal right claiming ryukyus islands.

ryukyus islands must be returned to ryukyus people as an independent nation. the us has the responsibility to see to it. even east timor got its independence. the rest of the world has the responsibility to urge the us to see that to happen.

this is not any favor, the ryuikyus people have the right to be free and independent once again, and not a moment too soon.

Agree. If one understands history, Ryukyuans were a separate nation for centuries, and are still a separate nation. They were annexed by the Japanese empire by force, bit after bit. They should be granted independence right after the World War II, or as soon as the Americans left in 1972. They can of course choose to get into a tripartite alliance with Japan and the US. It will be their own choice.

Whether people like it or not, Japan’s de facto control of the Diaoyu Islands has been compromised.
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From now on, Chinese official ships and fishing boats will be roaming around the Diaoyu Islands waters whenever they want. There is absolutely nothing the Japanese can do about it. Japan has literally become the “passive side” and can only be reactive to China’s proactive actions. I bet it must be exhausting for the Japanese as they will always be on high alert, and I wonder when their tense nerves will reach a breaking point.
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Meanwhile, China is beefing up its marine surveillance and fishery fleets, along with the constructions of new frigates, destroyers, aircraft carriers, stealth jet fighters and missiles.
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How much longer can Japan hold on to the Diaoyu Islands?

(1)China's economic woes and the PRC using Argentine's playbook
(i.e. Falklands) to diffuse problems at home by focusing on an
outside "enemy of the people."

(2)Japan which has economic problems of its own, and its
refusal to mend fences with the Chinese for WW2 atrocities.

(3)Taiwan, a de facto independent nation, constantly hamstrung
by China so that Taiwan international recognition and political clout
is severely hamper and not commensurable with its industrial and
economic might.

The islands belong to Taiwan. Taiwan and Japan could share its resources,
and that would be the right thing to do. China has a land mass that
dwarfs both Taiwan and Japan. China invaded Tibet for its fresh water
source that feeds rivers all the way down to India and China. This is
a battle of resources, and China has already squandered hers with
pollution. Taiwan, on the other hand, has become one of the world's
mightiest technology and industrila hubs while preserving most of its
natural beauty. Look at Taiwan's eastern seaboard for example.http://www.michaelturton.com/Taiwan/eecc61.JPG

Ugh... the Ryukyuans are ethnically from Kyushu and speak a Satsuma dialect from there. True, there is some mutual unintelligibility due to isolation, but they are ethnically Japanese. Not Chinese, no Polynesian, not Melanesian, and not distinctively different like the Kurile Islanders or others on disputed islands. Might as well bring back the Satsuma domain as the Okinawan kingdom. Unless, of course, the Okinawan patriots wish to resume their tribute relationship to China? Return to reality, please.

don't try to use lingua-franca to wish as an argumet here.
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do you aware that the americans speak english? and they are no u.k.?
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as I said, ryukyus people should be free and independent as an independent nation. none of your tribute relationship to china or to japan stuff.
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the only major tribute relationship in the world today is japan-the us relationship, now that you mentioned it. and that's reality to you and me and everybody on earth, today.

I hope that the Japs will only enjoy the water splashing festival once a year during Songkran. Otherwise some accidents could happens to spark a war between the Japanese coast guards and Taiwan coast guards guarding the fishermen.

even with sugar daddy uncle sam to bank on, everything developed so far suggests that japan is on the losing side. japan is running scared knowing full well by now that the US will not stick its neck out for a vassal state even though it instigated the whole thing in the beginning.

with its relation with china on the rocks, the us simply cannot afford to tighten its china containment ring further at this time, not before an honourable pull out of afghanistan, not before its economy turns better a little bit, and not on the eve of a tight presidential race. the china bashing may be understandably louder and noisier, but it's all bites but with no teeth, and purposely so.

with guam picking up more and more west pac security responsibility for the us, japan is increasingly more expendable as a vassal state than before.

too bad the japanese politicians don't have the smarts to seeing this. the japanese water gunning taiwanese fishing boats yesterday is just yet another example that japan is losing its balls.

I wouldn't rush to talk about the US backing out of Japan so quickly. The move to Guam has more to do with relocating Marines that cannot seem to make nice with the locals. The American naval and air bases aren't going anywhere any time soon. If anything, with our "Shift of focus toward the Far East and Pacific" regions, we've actually sent more troops to the region.

So long as China remains the primary adversary of both nations, this partnership will remain strong.

Hey there, don't get so testy! It's just one American. There are over 300,000,000 of us, and with the right to free speech, each one of us has our own opinion. So... no one who comments on these articles really represents the majority of the United States ;)

Additionally, unlike Japanese vehicles (rich Chinese prefer Audi/BMW anyway), I don't see many protesters giving up their iPhones. It's easy for Chinese people to hate on Japan because they've got recent history of pretty serious atrocities.

The US is far away, and has committed no atrocities on China's soil (well, not since the Qing Dynasty, at least, and we've long since apologized for it, unlike a *certain* nation). Any anti-America rioters would probably justify keeping their iPhones because they're made in China (yes, irony).

The islands have been administered by Japan from 1895 to 1945, by the US from 1945 to 1972, and then Japan again after that. Theoretically, they would have been handed to the ROC before the PRC, but that didn't happen.

It is naive to believe simple sentences like that: democracy is a cure for everything!!
As naive as American believing who called communists are evil in the 60s, or Chinese believe that Capitalists created all the problem on the planet.

The communists were pretty evil in the 60's. Go to any university in China and ask one of the older professors where the student graveyard was. Most universities had one though almost all of them have been paved over. (The one at Sichuan university is now under swimming pool) This is a relic from the time when Mao told the army to 'arm the students' and overthrow capitalist roaders in the communist party. Unfortunately, he failed to specify which student so several rival groups received weapons and started fighting eachother. Thousands died as rival groups, each believing themselves to be the only true believers in communism, waged war and destroyed the regular party apparatus. In Chongqing, they even got tanks. Order was only restored by the army in 1968.

Quote: “Chinese boats have briefly entered into waters surrounding the contested islets in recent weeks… but they were never made the target of Japanese water-cannon. This could be because, unlike the Taiwanese fishing fleet, they tend to leave quickly after verbal warnings.”
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The mainland Chinese marine surveillance ships have NEVER given a damn about the “verbal warnings” from the Japanese coast guards! When the 6 mainland Chinese ships entered the Diaoyu Islands waters on Sept 14, they roamed around there for over 6 hours (from around 6:00a.m. till 12:30p.m.) and the Japanese coast guards were too chicken to intervene.
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On the contrary, the Taiwanese fishing boats and patrol ships only stayed in the Diaoyu Islands waters for about 2 hours (from around 7:30a.m. till 9:40a.m.) yesterday and they were attacked with water cannons by the Japanese coast guard ships. As a matter of fact, Japan has never given a damn about Taiwan.
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I am aware that The Economist (and quite a few other British media) has always liked to paint a negative picture of mainland China, but this one is really low.

The Japs coast guards cannot handle 6 survelliance ships and the 1000 fishing boats from China. Hope that a shouting match about sovereignty will remain a shouting match between the 2 sides without a resort to force. Otherwise a war could erupt.

The Hong Kong boat isn't a Chinese boat or one of the Chinese boats. An independent Hong Kong should lay its own claim and its own EEZ. The Brits deprived Hongkongers (who were and still are British nationals) the right to self determination, and handed them over to the Commies like handing Jews over to the Nazis.

Taking the Baidu News as an argument to prove China's opinion is not a wise option,of course. As a rolling piece of news in the internet, the time staying in a place is perhaps more important than the place itself.